1 July 2021

Extension of PLR to include remote loans of ebooks and eaudio-books from public libraries in Northern Ireland

The British Library is pleased to announce that a Statutory Instrument comes into force, today, 1 July 2021 extending PLR to include remote loans of ebooks and eaudio-books from public libraries in Northern Ireland. Contributors to titles in these formats loaned from public libraries in Northern Ireland will be eligible for PLR payments for the first time. This legislative change brings the loans of ebooks and eaudio-books from these libraries into line with loans from public libraries in the rest of the UK.

Tom Holland, Chair of the PLR Advisory Committee, said of the changes: “This additional legislation to include PLR on these loans from public libraries in Northern Ireland will be hugely to the benefit of authors, who are fully aware that printed books these days are not the only way of reaching their readers." He added: “The changes in library borrowing as a result of Covid has had a significant impact on loans of ebooks and eaudio-books. The inclusion of their loans from Northern Ireland public libraries will be of great advantage to all authors and other contributors to these titles.”   

The change comes into effect from 1 July 2021, with data on ebook and eaudio book loans being collected from this date and the first payments being made in February 2023.

Further information on the registration of non-print material can be found on the PLR website.

15 January 2021

UK PLR annual payments

PLR payments to UK accounts have now been made and those to overseas accounts will be made on Monday 18th Jan. Please allow 3-5 working days for these to reach your account.

6 January 2021

UK PLR annual statements and payments

We're very pleased to announce that PLR statements are now available online. For anyone waiting for a postal statement these will be despatched later this week. Please make any amendments asap.

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17 November 2020

Irish PLR annual statements and payments

This year’s Rate Per Loan for the Irish PLR Scheme is 4.39 cent.

Irish PLR statements are now available to view via your online account (if you are synchronised with both UK and Irish PLR schemes). Online statements are provided regardless of whether there is a payment due. If you do not have an online account you will receive a paper statement. Please note that paper statements are only sent to those who are due to receive a payment (i.e. your registered titles earn €2 or more).

If your payment is being made directly from the UK PLR office and not via a collecting society such as ICLA or ALCS, payment will be made between 1 -11 December 2020.  Please ensure that your bank details are up to date and advise us of any change as soon as possible to prevent delay in receiving your payment.  You can update your address and bank details in writing or via the online service. We can also accept changes of address (but not bank details) over the telephone, subject to verification being provided.  Please note that we are unable to accept changes to either address or bank details via email.

20 May 2020

Annual public library loans figures reveal the UK's most borrowed e-books for the first time

The latest annual data released today shows the most borrowed authors and books in UK public libraries during 2018-19 and includes e-books (click here to read more)

What’s happening in your local library? – Fascinating regional variations in borrowing data... (click here to read more)

Further information on the nation’s book borrowing tastes such as the most borrowed authors and titles Media Centre area of the PLR website.

Due to on-going development work on the PLR system, these 2018-19 releases had been deferred from the usual February publication date. The later publication of these releases has had no impact on the calculation and distribution of payments for these PLR loans which were made in February 2020

UK PLR statements are ready to view!